The working from home thread: tips and advice

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Lighting, talk to me, do I want a daylight bulb for the gloomier days or am I going to find it to clinical? I can see me landing up with two lamps, one with a cooler light for the day and one for warmer light late afternoon/evening

Philips Hue. Spendy but you'll never look back.

I was a sceptic but wouldn't be without it now.

Annoyingly one of my hue bulbs doesn't work. The others are fine!

Straw poll - Just how much is everyone else sneaking away for snoozes in the middle of the day?

I find myself resentful of midday meetings, as that's prime kip time.

I wish I could....

I was adamant I would have one last Monday after falling asleep in the car during the 2 minutes waiting for the childminder to open. Then got back and had some inconsiderate feckers expecting me to do some work.

Yeah certainly done of this and definitely one of the net positive things about working from home — I’ve slept in toilets at work during lunch before when I’ve been really tired.

I’ve just started a new job from home - been unemployed/a student for the last year. Any suggestions? I’ve read upthread but was hoping someone might be able to add a little more now with lots of people have 7 months WFH experience

Watch how much coffee you drink, you would have thought after 3yrs of WFH I'd know how to regulate my coffee intake.

Try to keep the masturbating in check too. It’s good to have a reward system in place for hitting goals throughout the day but not so much it affects your eyesight.

If you struggle with the above, make sure you know when your webcam is live.

Any recommendations for desk size, particularly depth? I'm looking to rearrange where I work and will need a new desk (pondering a sit/stand one).

Not too big would be nice but I'll be using either dual 22" monitors or a single 30" monitor or similar with mouse and keyboard so don't want to be too near the screen or too cramped.

I use a piece of breakfast bar worktop 900mm deep with three monitors on arms, wouldn't want the monitors any closer to me than they are.bad photo attached

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Any recommendations for desk size, particularly depth?

I've got two 23" monitors mounted on a desk mounted arm (https://www.scan.co.uk/products/arctic-z2-basic-monitor-arm-for-upto-27-monitors-tilt-swivel-pivot) on an 160x80cm Ikea desk and, if anything, there's too much space.

The monitor arm buys a lot of space as I don't have the monitors standing on the desk itself.

For a minimal setup I wouldn't want to go less than 60cm deep (otherwise the screens would be too close to my eyes). I say this because my keyboard is 20cm from the front of my desk and that's all I'd be able to lose.

For width, thanks to the stand, I could go down to anything as low as 80cm wide. That's enough to have laptop (with lid closed) with keyboard in front, phone & mouse to one side and coffee/water on the other.

Obviously need more desk if you want space for paper or clutter.

(And I've got plenty of clutter: https://lfgss.microcosm.app/api/v1/files/9e82e900dcf97ee29874003a14d5026fb7d3aa52.png)

Very pro looking set up.

Is the mesh grill to protect the PC from children?

You got it in one! The light up alien face on the power button is a magnet for little fingers.

The cupboard is actually one I had designed and built to hold this PC, doors on front and back, void on the back for cables to run into, large mesh panel on the side for ventilation. all built for £120.

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That's a good idea and good value.

We're really glad my OH's Bluetooth key board has an on/off switch so there's a quick failsafe for little jabby fingers.

I have found the best solution...

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I’ve just started a new job from home - been unemployed/a student for the last year. Any suggestions? I’ve read upthread but was hoping someone might be able to add a little more now with lots of people have 7 months WFH experience

I'd say make sure you try to keep the work and home life separate. I struggle with this big time as its easy to just login here and there and find yourself still working late into the evening.

Regular catch-up meetings may also be your thing, some people enjoy not having other people around but others miss that social aspect of the office.

Try to get outside during the day, even if its just a walk to the shop for snacks. Otherwise you'll notice the days/weeks go by and you haven't left the house.

Think about keeping yourself comfy while working, even if you're working up the kitchen table try to get an office chair in there. I only stupidly realised this recently.

Ikea do a sit/stand desk for around £200. I think its just over a meter and a half wide, that's what I'm eyeing up for the new place.

Unfortunately we're working from our dinning room and mini-H is happy to bang on the door and shout.

desk mounted arm

Hmm, anyone found one of these that is sturdy/long enough to also allow you to stand at the desk?

(no drilling, I'm in a rented flat)

I have just installed this and slung my 24" on one side. New 27" from IT should be arriving tomorrow to go on the other side.

https://www.vonhaus.com/vh_en/home-office/double-arm-monitor-mount-with-clamp

Really impressed with the quality for the price.

For a single monitor at fixed standing height, you could probably use the below and take off one of the brackets

https://www.vonhaus.com/vh_en/home-office/vertical-double-monitor-mount

Or for double, a similar tactic with this

https://www.vonhaus.com/vh_en/home-office/quad-monitor-mount

After six months of WFH, top tips would be:

• Tell co-workers that you are taking your lunch break, then they're not left thinking you're ignoring their messages / calls. Outside of an office people tend to eat at very different times.

• Go outside. Very easy not to do so, especially when the weather's not great.

• Noice cancelling headphones are amazing. As are external keyboards + mouse if on a laptop.

• Try and have some non-work-related chat on conference calls. Not always possible but having regular human interactions with no sense of 'humanity' can get pretty soul destroying.

Yeah we have a team meeting each week where we don't talk work, just spend an hour chatting shit like we would in the office.

Pretty sure this is the same one I got for work when we got a shit load of HP screens with no stands for cheap (it turns out that 2nd hand HP stands are actually more expensive than screens).

Paid a similar price via amazon.

Although the moving parts aren't very elegant, it's pretty sturdy.